Life Balance

Tag: bag of tricks

Welcome to day 20! How is your self-care month going? Are you fitting it in or struggling? Are you enjoying it and finding the time or finding it a chore to look after yourself in so many ways? Feedback always welcome here, dear.

Day 20 is going to be about more journalling. Now I know we’ve covered a few journal entries and i have asked you to answer various questions in your journal but today is about something a bit more general. Cont…

I can’t believe it is day 18 of self-care month already! Only 12 more days to go, well done for getting so far, you should be patting yourself on the back 🙂

When I went to counselling one of the things that we had to do in order to progress was to set some goals. This gave us all a purpose and a reason for moving forwards when the counselling had finished. I can’t really remember what my original goals were, they have probably changed quite a lot since then. Cont…

I think that when most people think about self-care this is what first comes to mind. Pampering yourself, looking after yourself and making yourself feel special and beautiful and wonderful. And you should, every body should. So todays self-care task is to spend a while doing this.

I had a wonderful message the other day from one of my readers, she had a bad day with a lot of stress from outside influences beyond her control and decided to delve into the ‘bag of tricks’ to feel more balanced and calm heres what she said;

‘I had the most horrendous migraine yesterday with it all and I realised my neck and shoulders were tense. This made me think about the things you have said so I put everything on hold and jumped into a nice hot bubble bath and came up with an action plan. It worked!!!! Thank you! You should be so proud of everything you are doing for yourself and other people.’

I’ll be honest now it brought a tear to my eye. I love to know, on a personal level that the tricks and tips I write are being used and are working. I mean, I know they work because I do it myself but it’s so good to hear this.

And very importantly-Dear Lady, you should be soo proud of yourself too for noticing the signs and for looking after yourself. I am so proud of you and happy for you!

Remembering to take care of yourself when it feels like the world is falling apart is hard to do. But it works, it puts things into perspective and it makes you stronger for when these things do arise.

Have you been delving in to my bag of tricks? What do you feel is working for you?

Don’t forget to sign up for self-care month emails. A self-care task to your inbox everyday throughout June for FREEEEE!!

And the Ebook Balance Your Life Today is available worldwide on Amazon for £1.99 or free on kindle unlimited. It is a practical guide to creating balance in your life and is choca-blok with tips and hints.

In my Leonie Dawson workbook that I filled out at the beginning of this year there was a page called

12 Zen Habits (From Leo Babuta at Zen habits.net)

They are all pretty useful and zen and go as follows

Set your 3 MIT’s (most important tasks) each morning

Single task (focus your attention)

Zero inbox

Process emails once a day

Exercise 5-10 mins a day

Work while disconnected

Keep your desk decluttered

Clear & declutter home for 15 mins a day

Stick to a 5 sentence limit on emails (make your words powerful)

Say no to commitments & requests not on your important short list

Eat fresh fruit & veg everyday

Follow a morning routine

I think we can all pretty much agree that these ‘Zen Habits’ are worth thinking about as we go through our days. In fact I have them stuck on the wall in front of me right this very second look

My favourite one is number 1. I actually do use this one every day now. Having 3 MIT’s is great because it isn’t overwhelming. It its an endless to do list. It is just what actually matters to you the most on that day. Sometimes there is time for more. Some days I have achieved my MIT’s by 11am and I have the rest of the day to frolic..or whatever. I take 5 minutes every morning to figure out what the 3 tasks are for that day that i definitely need to do. If i think of 4 i have to choose which ones are the most necessary to my day.

Todays MIT’s for example are

Write blog post

Go to appointment

Start assignment

Today is pretty standard actually. Often my 3 MIT’s have something to do with self-care (appointment-actually for hypnotherapy) something for my business (today-write blog post) and often something to do with studying because there is basically always something I really need to do for that.

Other days, I know immediately that My number 1 priority is self care. Sometimes my MIT is actually to find time for a quick nap, or a bath, or just to read alone for a while. On days when I’m not feeling that great I know that that needs to be taken care of first.

Some days it is to do something fun with my family, to visit my grandma, to clean something, to business plan, to organise something for charity, to find time for yoga or a walk or to write in my journal if I haven’t done that for a while, to create something if i haven’t done that for a while.

You get the picture. I need to sit down each morning and actually give myself a few minutes to think about what the day holds in store for me and how I can work out when to do my MIT’s.

Why don’t you try it? Could you list 3 MIT’s today?

Peace out,

Imogen x

P.S.

Have you signed up for self-care month? Free daily emails throughout June with self care tasks in for every day! Sign up here

Sometimes when you get a little off track and are struggling to create life balance you don’t see it coming. You burnout, stress out and you can’t think why. Everybody has their own warning signs when this happens, yours might be different to mine. I know mine because when I was diagnosed with anxiety I realised that all the things that I had begun to feel every day were not normal. When you are in the midst of it though you may not know what is normal, you may not know what your warning signs are. Mine are

Shoulder pain. When I tense up my shoulder muscles get the worst of it. I hunch up and I can tell maybe even after only a few hours that I am out of balance. Something has got my stressed and I need to implement a little self care to balance myself out again.

Fatigue. Being stressed is exhausting, the tension, the anxiety, the physical symptoms. For me especially my body screams at me to rest. If I sit down for a few minutes I struggle to get back up. I feel tired and then I figure out why.

Not being able to sleep. Anyone who has suffered with anxiety or stress will no that on the other side of the tiredness there is a horrific inability to sleep. You get so wound up that you can’t relax or rest. Something has got your mind whirring and you can’t switch it off.

Irritability. If I am getting unreasonably snappy at my family then I know I need to calm down. It happens when I am preoccupied with something that is causing me stress.

Feeling emotional. As well as the snappy irritability theres the urge to burst into tears with very little cause!

A feeling of uneasiness that you can’t put your finger on. It feels as though you have forgotten something, your mind is racing but not for any particular reason.

Headaches. Because of the combination of tiredness and tension headaches are bound to happen.

Some of these warning signs come straight away some of them come as the stress builds up over time. The big one for me is the shoulder pain. I know that if I am really sore up there then I haven’t been looking after myself properly and I need to stop and figure out why and how I can correct it as soon as possible, by scheduling some time for myself to relax and recover and to use my bag of tricks so I can get my life balance back to what it should be. It doesn’t happen as often anymore because I am used to balancing my life every day. But I won’t ever say that it will never happen, of course it will. We all lose track and we all get overwhelmed and we all forget to look after ourselves sometimes but now I know that I can see it coming. As it edges towards me I can tell myself that something has gone wrong and I need to reassess what I am doing in my every day life.

Do you know your warning signs? Perhaps you share some of mine. If not, do you know how to work yours out? Drop me an email at imogenjhope@gmail.com if you need help figuring it out.

When something really drains me emotionally; (for example a confrontation, bad news, a shock) it really affects me deeply. I am particularly sensitive to these things. I wish i was more fiesty and fiery, I used to be, but alas I am not. I have turned into a sensitive flower as I have aged and perhaps just need to toughen up!

When I am completely drained after one of these situations I have to delve into my bag of tricks to make me feel better and these are they

~ Have a cup of tea, whatever your favourite kind peppermint, green, Darjeeling any will work, a cup of tea is like a bath on the inside. For me these situations call for Yorkshire tea

~ Have an actual bath, Epsom salts are great for releasing toxins and lavender oil is the classic for relaxation. If I’m desperate for a a relaxing bath baby comes in with me, still getting the benefits with her there.

~ Pin some uplifting quotes

~ Journal, this is a big one for me, if I forget to journal once a week I feel very muddled and can get quite low. It’s always therapeutic to write things down

~ Watch a favourite film, I can never watch Grease too many times quite frankly or my favourite episodes of The IT crowd actually

~ Meditation. Sometimes it’s difficult to find the time and space I know but 10 minutes will benefit your mood massively. The app Headspace is really great if you are trying to learn this skill

~ Exercise is proven to release mood enhancing hormones. For a quick fix I type dru yoga into YouTube or hula hoop for 10 minutes.

~ Listen to music. At my lowest point I realised that I hadn’t listened to music other than in the car for months!

~ Paint nails, put on lipstick or both! Oo and putting lots of jewellery so i jangle when I walk

~ Rest, get into bed early, write down what are you grateful for and sleep it off

What do you do when you’re recovering from emotional stress?

Imogen x

About me & my blog

The vision for the blog Imogen J Hope-Life Balance is to create an online resource containing helpful information and sources to help people achieve balance in their lives. I want to start by creating a catalogue of blog posts which explain different ways in which I and other people can achieve a better balance in their lives. To have more time and energy for the things that they are passionate about, for example hobbies and interests and to look after themselves mentally, physically and emotionally, so that they can reach greater potential. I want people to see that their lives don't need to be endless circles of work they don’t enjoy and fatigue. Life can be more fulfilling and creating a better balance is the way to do it. In the future I want to share ebooks, worksheets and online courses containing information and interactive guides on how to achieve greater life balance.

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